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the story of Mr. Toad

Mr. Toad made friends with us at the barn in Barrington while Mommy was having Dax shod on a Saturday morning around 10am.

Elaine and Grace were playing with Mr. Toad and Mommy was not paying attention. We put him in a bucket and gave him lots of grass to eat. We gave him a little stick to climb on. We ran around and showed him to everyone at the barn.

Elaine asked if they could keep Mr. Toad. Mommy said that he had to be free at the barn where he belonged and that he would have to be let go. Around 11am, it was time to leave and Mr. Toad was nowhere to be found. Elaine said that she had let him go. Mommy was proud that Elaine was such a big girl.

After driving for about 30 minutes down the highway toward home in Chicago, Elaine piped up.

"Mommy, what if I didn't exactly let Mr. Toad go?"

"Well", said Mommy, "what do you mean?"

"Oh nothing.", said Elaine.

A long summer day ensued and finally day turned to night. The children were tucked into their beds and Mommy's friend Sam came over to watch movies.

"I'll go get a movie", said Mommy. And she ran out to her new truck and drove off to the Blockbuster to get Good Will Hunting.

When Mommy came back to the truck, she drove off happily towards home with her movie. Suddenly, she felt something soft and wet on her sandled foot. "Yikes!!", she said and pulled over to the side of the road to see what it was.

And there was Mr. Toad. Funny, it didn't seem like letting him go might mean **in the truck**! So, Mr. Toad had a big adventure and got to stay overnight in Chicago until Sunday when he was delivered back to the barn in Barrington. We had fun playing with him while we had him.

{ back to sisters }

elaine & grace chicago, illinois